RENAULT RANGE T HIGH 520
(^54) August 2019 Truck & Driver
S
tarting a haulage
company from scratch is
not an easy task and
comes with its fair share
of head scratching and
risk taking. For a start, buying
the right truck to accumulate
some miles and thus allow the
creation of invoices is a crucial
decision not to be taken lightly.
One relative newbie into the
trucking world has gone down
this exact path and almost five
years later is enjoying success
operating his own haulage
company, JP Transport, based at
Loughbrickland, near Banbridge
in County Down, Northern
Ireland. Owner Paul O’Hare is
just 34 years old but already runs
a fleet of four tractor units, all of
them Renault, including his new,
top-of-the-range Renault Range
T High tractor unit.
Reliable, cheap
Paul initially ran second-hand
Renault Magnums as, he says,
they were reliable and cheap.
Today, some five years later, the
Magnums may have gone but
the reliability of the Renault
brand lives on.
As Paul explains, his journey
to becoming the boss of a
haulage company hasn’t exactly
taken the conventional route.
“I used to be a bricklayer by
trade,” he says. “Sadly, one day I
had an accident and broke my
arm, which subsequently forced
me off the job for nine months.
“Then, in 2008, the economy
crashed and the bricklaying work
dried up, so I was effectively out
of a job and needed a new
stream of income to support me
and my family.”
Paul decided to take the HGV
test and start driving trucks for a
Paul O’Hare with three-year-old son Cian
living. After a few lessons and
successful completion of the test,
Paul was geared up to start a life
behind the wheel and embark on a
driving career with a local haulier.
“It was a good start to driving
lorries and I learned a lot from
that first job, as well as gaining
valuable experience and
contacts,” says Paul.
“The company I was driving
for had a customer that
manufactured packaging for fast
food and other products. We
were delivering the raw materials
to the factory almost on a daily
basis and hauling the finished
product away to Belfast docks at
the same time.
“It was a busy operation, but
the owner of the trucking
company decided to give up that
contract and move on to other
work. That is when I saw an
opportunity to start up my own
haulage company, and I grabbed
it with both hands. I knew it
wasn’t going to be an easy task
but it was a challenge I was
ready to tackle.”
That particular
packaging manufacturer
“It was a busy operation, but the
owner of the trucking company
decided to give up that contract
and move on to other work. That is
when I saw an opportunity to start
up my own haulage company, and
I grabbed it with both hands”